Tag: Read

WWW Wednesdays 19/7/17

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too? Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

VirginoftheWindRoseThe Virgin of the Wind Rose by Glen Craney (review copy)

While investigating the murder of an American missionary in Ethiopia, rookie State Department lawyer Jaqueline Quartermane stumbles upon the infamous Templar Word Square, an ancient Latin puzzle that has eluded scholars for centuries. To her horror, she soon discovers the palindrome has been embedded with a cryptographic time bomb. Separated by half a millennium, two global conspiracies dovetail in this historical mystery-thriller to expose the world’s most explosive secret: the real identity and mission of Christopher Columbus.

Verdict so far: There are two stories – one set in the present and one in the 15th century.  I’m probably drawn more to the story set in the past but I’m looking forward to  how the two stories come together.

TheRoombytheLakeThe Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin (eARC)

When Caitlin moved from London to New York, she thought she had left her problems behind: her alcoholic father, her dead mother, the pressure to succeed. But now, down to her last dollar in a foreign city, she is desperately lonely. Then she meets Jake. Handsome, smart, slightly damaged Jake. He lives off-grid, in a lakeside commune whose members practise regular exercise and frequent group therapy. Before long, Caitlin has settled into her idyllic new home. It looks like she has found the fresh start she longed for. But, as the commune tightens its grip on her freedom and her sanity, Caitlin realizes too late that she might become lost forever…

Verdict so far: I’m enjoying the complex lead character the author has created.  I’m 30% through and waiting for the ‘thriller’ bit to come to the fore…

Recently finished

TheVanishingofAudreyWildeThe Vanishing of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase (eARC)

From the present day …Applecote Manor captivates Jessie with it promise of hazy summers in the Cotswolds. She believes it’s the perfect escape for her troubled family. But the house has an unsettling history, and strange rumours surround the estate.  To the fifties…When teenage Margot and her three sisters arrive at Applecote during the heatwave of ’59, they find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their daughter Audrey five years before. The sisters are drawn into the mystery of Audrey’s vanishing – until the stifling summer takes a shocking, deadly turn. Will one unthinkable choice bind them together, or tear them apart?

Verdict: Really enjoyed this, review to come shortly

TheYellowWall-PaperThe Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

First published in 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is written as the secret journal of a woman who, failing to relish the joys of marriage and motherhood, is sentenced to a country rest cure. Though she longs to write, her husband and doctor forbid it, prescribing instead complete passivity. In the involuntary confinement of her bedroom, the hero creates a reality of her own beyond the hypnotic pattern of the faded yellow wallpaper – a pattern that has come to symbolize her own imprisonment. Narrated with superb psychological and dramatic precision, The Yellow Wallpaper stands out not only for the imaginative authenticity with which it depicts one woman’s descent into insanity, but also for the power of its testimony to the importance of freedom and self-empowerment for women.

Verdict: Chilling and unsettling, read my review here

What Cathy (will) Read Next

ItWasOnlyEverYouIt Was Only Ever You by Kate Kerrigan (review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus)

Patrick Murphy has charm to burn and a singing voice to die for. Many people will recognise his talent. Many women will love him. Rose, the sweetheart he leaves behind in Ireland, can never forget him and will move heaven and earth to find him again, long after he has married another woman. Ava, the heiress with no self-confidence except on the dance floor, falls under his spell. And tough Sheila Klein, orphaned by the Holocaust and hungry for success as a music manager, she will be ruthless in her determination to unlock his extraordinary star quality. But in the end, Patrick Murphy’s heart belongs to only one of them. Which one will it be?

TheWatchHouseThe Watch House by Bernie McGill (eARC)

As the twentieth century dawns on the island of Rathlin, a place ravaged by storms and haunted by past tragedies, Nuala Byrne is faced with a difficult decision. Abandoned by her family for the new world, she receives a proposal from the island’s aging tailor. For the price of a roof over her head, she accepts. Meanwhile the island is alive with gossip about the strangers who have arrived from the mainland, armed with mysterious equipment which can reportedly steal a person’s words and transmit them through thin air. When Nuala is sent to cook for these men – engineers, who have been sent to Rathlin by Marconi to conduct experiments in the use of wireless telegraphy – she encounters an Italian named Gabriel, who offers her the chance to equip herself with new skills and knowledge. As her friendship with Gabriel opens up horizons beyond the rocky and treacherous cliffs of her island home, Nuala begins to realise that her deal with the tailor was a bargain she should never have struck.

 

Book Review: The Girl in the Glass Tower by Elizabeth Fremantle

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TheGirlintheGlassTowerAbout the Book

Publisher’s description: Hardwick Hall, sixteenth-century England. Formerly a beacon of wealth and power. Now a gilded prison. Hidden away, forgotten, one young woman seeks escape. But to do so she must trust those on the outside. Those who have their own motives…Discovery means death. But what choice has any woman trapped in a man’s world? Imprisoned by circumstance, Arbella Stuart is an unwilling contender for the throne. In a world where women are silenced, what chance does she have to take control of her destiny?

Format: Paperback Publisher: Michael Joseph Pages: 464
Publication: 25th July 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction    

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Girl in the Glass Tower on Goodreads

My Review

The Girl in the Glass Tower weaves together the stories of two women, drawing on historical fact about each of their lives, although in reality, as the author admits in her afterword, there is no evidence to say they ever met in the way imagined. However, this is historical fiction after all and I really liked the way the author made connections between the situations of the two women.

Aemilia Lanyer (referred to as Ami in the novel) was an English female poet who became mistress to Henry Hunsdon, first cousin of Elizabeth I. When she fell pregnant, she was married off to Alphonso Lanyer. We encounter Ami in this novel following Alphonso’s death, left in poverty to bring up her son, Henry.  Ami comes into possession of Arbella’s papers which include fragments of a memoir. [Although Arbella’s letters do still exist, the existence of a memoir is an invention of the author for the purposes of the novel.] Through reading Arbella’s words, Ami hopes to assuage the guilt she feels at having failed her friend. The reader will find out more about this towards the end of the book. Ami shares the same sense of expectation as the reader as she reads through the papers:

‘She can sense that her own story is about to intersect with Lady Arbella’s. The idea excites her, makes her wonder how she will be portrayed, whether she will recognize herself. Will she be there substantially, at the heart of the story, or as a ghost in the margins?’  

At the same time, Ami must struggle with the challenges of daily life as a widow without financial means. I found the depiction of Ami’s everyday life and her efforts to carve out a living really convincing and engaging. As a single woman, and one who is educated to boot, she attracts the suspicion of her neighbours at a time when accusations of witchcraft were rife.

Arbella’s journal reveals her life in a gilded cage, existing in an atmosphere of constant threat because of her royal blood and the ever present fear that she may be used as a figurehead for rebellion by competing political and religious factions.  Unknown to Arbella, those who would use her for their own objectives may be closer than she imagines – ‘invisible malign forces’.  Intelligent, educated and with a gift for writing, Arbella lacks control of her own destiny. Even a potential marriage would have political consequences so she must remain unmarried and unfulfilled. In the imagination of the author, Arbella seeks to exercise a degree of control over her life in the only way available to her.

As presented in the book, there are large gaps in Arbella’s journal covering periods of years. Ami seeks to fill those gaps and bring a resolution to Arbella’s story: ‘It is the story of a woman silenced and with her pen Ami will give her a voice.’

I’d come across references to Arbella Stuart when reading other historical fiction of the period but knew little about her so I very much enjoyed having some light shed on her sad and ultimately tragic life. Arbella Stuart joins the list of Tudor and Stuart women who suffered because of their position in the royal succession and the political machinations of others.   I enjoyed this book and will certainly seek out other books by Elizabeth Fremantle.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Michael Joseph, in return for an honest review.

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In three words: Dramatic, well-researched, historical

Try something similar…Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

ElizabethFremantleAbout the Author

Elizabeth writes: “As a child I was the one in the corner with my nose in a book who wanted to be a writer, but with the onset of a turbulent adolescence I left school, under a cloud, aged fifteen with nothing more than a fistful of O Levels and a hapless sense that things would somehow work themselves out. Eventually, after working in various dodgy dives – I’ve served grey scrambled eggs to squaddies at 5.30am; I’ve served vintage champagne to raucous hoorays; I’ve pulled pints for all and sundry – I managed to find myself, much in the way Forrest Gump always landed on his feet, working as a dogsbody on a fashion magazine. Over a decade, I worked for titles such as Vogue, Elle and The Sunday Times and contributed to many others. Marriage took me to Paris, a stint at French Vogue and the birth of my two gorgeous children but divorce saw me back home in London where I have happily remained. Fuelled by frustration with a fashion world that does no favours to women, I decided to complete my truncated education as a mature student which led, in a long and roundabout way with many frustrating impasses, to my fulfilling that childhood dream to become a novelist.”

Elizabeth has a first in English and an MA in creative writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She has contributed to various publications including The Sunday Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. She also reviews fiction for The Sunday Express

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